Raffle to Help Fund Needed Sports Fields

The need for more ball fields is at the center of a fundraising effort the Diamond Bar Community Foundation and the Rotary Club have launched.

The two organizations are raising money for the Fields for Kids project with a raffle.  A $25 donation gives ticketholders a chance to win one of the many prizes offered, which include a Toyota Prius V, a Scion XD, one of two 47” TVs, two IPads, two IPods, or two $200 Visa Cards.  Five tickets can be purchased for $100.

The effort is to help grapple with a shortage of sports fields.  Diamond Bar has had too few fields to accommodate the nearly 6,000 children involved in its youth sports programs for several years, according to Lew Herndon, chair of the Diamond Bar Community Foundation Sports Fields Committee.  Two times a year, the city staff has field allocation meetings with youth sports organization leaders to divvy up the limited number of fields available.
 
“The city staff does an excellent job of working with the organizations to fairly allocate the fields, but the fact remains that we just do not have enough fields for the kids,” Herndon said in a news release. “This creates a great deal of frustration for the leaders of the organizations, the coaches, the parents and ultimately the kids.”

Several youth sports organizations have had to turn children away because of the limited space for practice and game play.
 
“This is a travesty in this day and age when over 30 percent of the kids in the country are obese mostly due to lack of exercise,” he said. “Organized sports are a great alternative to the electronic toys that consume today’s kids.”

Diamond Bar’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan urges the city to work with the local school districts on possible joint-use agreements to use campus fields for youth sports.  Proceeds from the raffle would go to help pay for the use of those fields.  The car raffle fundraiser was kicked off at the annual Diamond Bar Gala Nov. 10.

A $25 donation for a raffle ticket, or $100 for five tickets, may be sent to Fields for Kids at P.O. Box 4704, Diamond Bar, Calif.  91765. The tickets will be sent in the return mail.  Donors should include their address, phone number, and email information.